TOP FIVE FRIDAYS: OCTOBER 23, 2020
#1: The 2020-2021 FIS World Cup Season is Underway!
The scene at Soelden this week where excitement remained high, despite a lack of fans. Image: Official Soelden World Cup Ski Race Page on Facebook
Well, it’s finally here: our first official FIS World Cup Ski Racing recap of the 2020-2021 season! After a long offseason of uncertainty and logistical challenges, this year’s FIS World Cup circuit kicked off this past weekend in Soelden, Austria. Despite a lack of crowds due to the ongoing global pandemic, the weekend was still packed with excitement as athletes from all over felt the rush that accompanies each season’s first race. Along with that rush of excitement also came some reasonably unexpected results. Getting things started this year was a women’s GS race, where Italians Marta Bassino and Federica Brignone took first and second, with Slovokia’s Petra Vlhova sliding into third. For Bassino, the result conjured up memories of her first ever first place finish just over a year ago when she came out of nowhere to take home the gold at the 2019 Killington GS race. It should also solidify her as a name to watch both this season and in the year’s ahead. For the U.S. Women’s team, the results of the race were decent, particularly considering their leader, Mikaela Shiffrin, was forced to sit the race out. In her place, Paula Moltzan stepped up to grab a solid 10th place finish, while Nina O’Brien finished in a tie for 15th.
On the men’s side of things, the results were equally surprising as Norwegian Lucas Braathen took home the gold, as well as his first ever FIS podium finish. Following his leading run were Swiss teammates Marco Odermatt and Gino Caviezel securing second and third place respectively. Unfortunately for the U.S. Men’s team, the results weren’t quite as exciting. Leading the way for the U.S. was Tommy Ford in 22nd, followed by River Radamus in 27th. Looking ahead, both the Women’s and Men’s circuits will have three weeks off before reconvening in Lech / Zuers Austria for a pair of parallel slalom races on the 13th and 14th of November. By that time, Mikaela Shiffrin should be back, meaning that with any luck we’ll have a celebratory update in our Top 5 Friday report on the 20th. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. For now, head over to the FIS website to see the full list of results, or check in with SkiRacing.com to read more about this past weekend’s races.
#2: Eric Pollard Announces Departure from Line Skis, Shares New “Season Eqpt” Brand:
The impact of Eric Pollard's time at Line on the ski industry can't be understated. His handson approach to designing his pro model skis resulted in numerous designs whose influence can be seen throughout the industry. Image: Eric Pollard on Facebook
In other ski news this week, one of the longest running sponsor / athlete relationships has finally come to an end. After working together for the past 21 years, and the entirety of his professional career, Eric Pollard has announced that he’s parted ways with Line Skis. Somewhat surprisingly, the partnership came to an end just over a year ago, with Eric citing August 2019 as the official end date. Over the course of his tenure at Line, Eric Pollard made his mark on both the brand and the sport of freestyle skiing in a way that athletes rarely do. While his early career included some competitive efforts, it quickly became apparent that Pollard’s real value to the brand rested in his close working relationship with former brand owner Jason Levinthal. During the years in which Pollard and Levinthal worked closely together, Line skis was widely regarded as leaders in innovation with a number of skis such as the Line Elizabeth and Magnum Opus using design techniques that were either embraced by the rest of the industry, or ultimately become seen as novel experiments in ski design. Even after Levinthal’s departure from the brand, Pollard remained hands-on, contributing his expertise and artwork to a number of different skis over the last several years. Unfortunately though, as with all good things, Pollard’s time at Line has officially come to an end. To learn more about his departure, check out this recap from Newschoolers.com.
The good news though, is that this story isn’t entirely bad news. Along with his departure from Line Skis Pollard made an exciting announcement: he’s launching a new brand called, “Season Eqpt.”, which has just released a line of three skis and three snowboards. Joining him on this new venture are longtime Line director Josh Malcyzk, professional snowboarder Austin Smith, and former Line and Armada ski designer Andy Hyjtan. While there’s still much to learn about the brand new endeavor, it’s clear that one of the company’s core missions is to work to bridge the gap between skiing and snowboarding, with Pollard and Malcyzk both citing their long term side-passion for the sport of snowboarding. In addition to the blending of sports, the other aspect of Season Eqpt that immediately jumps out at us is a lack of graphics. Rather than use Pollard’s signature artistic style that’s graced the top sheet of skis for well over a decade, Season Eqpt has decided to only produce black top sheets, allowing their skis to be timeless and minimizing the desire of consumers to continuously buy the latest graphic. From a business perspective it’s an interesting choice, but if we’ve learned one thing about Eric Pollard it’s that he seems to possess a level of foresight that few of us share. For more on this latest effort, check out the recap on Newschoolers.com.
#3: Two Colorado Snowboarders Charged with Reckless Endangerment for Triggering an Avalanche That Buried a Road:
Looking down on the service road that was buried by an avalanche triggered by two CO snowboarders. Image via The Colorado Sun, originally provided by the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
Next up this week is an article that’s equal parts concerning, relevant, and thought provoking as we inch closer to a ski season in which there’s all but guaranteed to be a surplus of backcountry skiers and snowboarders. This week we learned from the Colorado Sun that two CO snowboarders have been issued the first ever criminal charges stemming from an avalanche. The story goes like this: last March, experienced backcountry snowboarders Tyler DeWitt and Evan Hannibal accidentally triggered an avalanche that buried a service road connected to I-70. Immediately after doing so, they carefully made their way down the mountain, reported the incident to authorities, and shared their video with the Colorado Avalanche Information Center in order to build a complete avalanche report, as is customary. Unfortunately for DeWitt and Hannibal however, their post-avalanche honesty was rewarded with a pair of reckless endangerment charges and a potential $168,000 fine for damage caused to avalanche mitigation equipment in the area. Equally as notable as these charges is the fact that this is the first time anyone’s ever been charged with reckless endangerment for triggering an avalanche. While the prosecutor in the case cites the fact that the two snowboarder’s actions resulted in the burial of a road, where cares and pedestrians could have been, DeWitt and Hannibal suggest that charging them with a crime and issuing such a severe penalty after they self-reported the incident and have video showing a certain degree of backcountry competence could have severe implications on the reporting of future incidents. If these charges are successfully upheld, DeWitt and Hannibal suggest that the likelihood of skiers and snowboarders reporting avalanches they trigger could significantly decrease. In an sport where sharing avalanche information is absolutely crucial to the safety of everyone involved, the reluctance to report incidents could have severe ramifications. That notion couldn’t come at a worse time as many states, and Colorado in particular, expect to see a surge in backcountry usage this winter, with a significant number of participants who are brand new to the sport. All told, it’s a doozy of a situation with plenty of factors requiring consideration. As is always the case when we share an article from the Colorado Sun, there’s plenty of more information (as well as a great POV video of the incident) to be found in the article itself. To learn more, we’ll turn you over to them.
#4: The Outdoor Industry Continues to Lead by Example: SIA Announces Climate Change Initiative, North Face Pledges $7 Million to Bring Diversity into the Outdoors:
SIA's new ClimateUnited initiative asks outdoor industry brands to commit to a path towards carbon neutrality by 2050. Image: SIA Official Website
Finally, we end this week with a tandem of articles that highlight one common theme: the outdoor industry’s consistent role as leaders for positive change. The first of these two stories that we’ll look at is an announcement from Snowsports Industries of America (SIA), the industry trade group best known for their role as hosts of the annual Outdoor Snow Show (formerly known as SIA), regarding a new initiative called ClimateUnited that looks to unify the snow sports industry in an effort to combat climate change. The premise of the program is relatively simple: it asks snow sport brands to commit to reducing their carbon emissions to 50% by 2030, and to 0% by 2050 at the very latest. For companies who join the pledge, SIA will provide a roadmap and support as businesses begin their journey towards carbon neutrality. While we’ve seen a number of businesses in the ski industry already take a stand against climate change, this initiative from SIA provides the opportunity to unify industry businesses, creating more environmentally sustainable businesses while also exemplifying how to create an eco friendly business in a way that could incite real change beyond the ski industry. For more on this update, check out the official press release from SIA.
The other initiative worth highlighting comes to us via an excellent article from Emily Crofton, posted to SnowBrains.com. In her writeup, Emily shares with us the news that North Face has launched a $7 million initiative focused on bringing racial diversity to the outdoors. To be sure, this is a topic we’ve seen mentioned a few times in recent months, however this is one of the most concrete examples of an outdoor company stepping up to the plate in an effort to make real change. The effort itself, called Reset Normal, will look to achieve this goal via the formation of a new organization called the Explore Fund Council. This council will be led by Lena Waithe and Jimmy Chin, two pillars of minority communities with histories of advocating for inclusion. While the tangible efforts of the organization will range from providing grants to organizations already operating in this space, to creating marketing efforts to promote racial diversity in the outdoors, the overarching goal of the council is to simply show people of all ethnicities that they belong in the outdoor community, regardless of race. For an industry that’s finally being forced to reconcile its racial disparity issues, this news from North Face is extremely welcome. To learn more about this, check out Emily’s recap over on Snowbrains, or North Face’s official announcement regarding the launch of their Explore Fund Council.
#4.5: Don't Forget, Our 2021 Ski Test is Now Live!
